threads / discuss / 17850

git-svn error: Unable to parse date

Subject: git-svn error: Unable to parse date

## tl;dr

6 messages between Feb 17, 2009 and Feb 19, 2009.

replies: 5people: 4as markdown or json

Ward Wouts· Feb 17, 2009, 09:48 UTC · lore
Hello,

I got the following error message while trying to fetch a subversion repository:

$ git svn init file:///home/mg/svn/mg git-svn-test Initialized empty Git repository in /home/ward/worktrees/git-svn-test/.git/ $ cd git-svn-test $ git svn fetch

r59 = c20f5b6c61bb8b2babc1b3644b6372e023d9d428 (git-svn)
W: +empty_dir: CFE
r60 = 1b8ad7c39dd60897319545c9f3f08b3b2b82b863 (git-svn)
        A       CFE/Makefile
Unable to parse date: 2004-03-09T09:44:33.Z
 at /usr/bin/git-svn line 3995
The message goes away with this one character patch:

$ diff -bru git-svn* --- git-svn 2009-02-17 10:23:24.000000000 +0100 +++ git-svn.orig 2009-02-17 10:20:30.000000000 +0100

@@ -2387,7 +2387,7 @@
 sub parse_svn_date {
        my $date = shift || return '+0000 1970-01-01 00:00:00';
        my ($Y,$m,$d,$H,$M,$S) = ($date =~ /^(\d{4})\-(\d\d)\-(\d\d)T
-                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d*Z$/x) or
+                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d+Z$/x) or
                                         croak "Unable to parse date: $date\n";
        "+0000 $Y-$m-$d $H:$M:$S";
 }



As the matching digits get ignored I don't see how this patch could introduce a
problem. Then again, I'm just starting with git and don't know anything about
the internals of either git or subversion.

Ward
Deskin Miller· Feb 17, 2009, 14:26 UTC · re: Ward Wouts · lore

Re: git-svn error: Unable to parse date

Hi,
Cc:ing Eric Wong, the git-svn author; further comments inline.
On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 04:48, Ward Wouts <ward@wouts.nl> wrote:
Show 7 quoted lines
> $ git svn fetch
> Unable to parse date: 2004-03-09T09:44:33.Z
>  at /usr/bin/git-svn line 3995
>
> The message goes away with this one character patch:
>
> $ diff -bru git-svn*
Not using git to hack on git?
Show 11 quoted lines
> --- git-svn     2009-02-17 10:23:24.000000000 +0100
> +++ git-svn.orig        2009-02-17 10:20:30.000000000 +0100
> @@ -2387,7 +2387,7 @@
>  sub parse_svn_date {
>        my $date = shift || return '+0000 1970-01-01 00:00:00';
>        my ($Y,$m,$d,$H,$M,$S) = ($date =~ /^(\d{4})\-(\d\d)\-(\d\d)T
> -                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d*Z$/x) or
> +                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d+Z$/x) or
>                                         croak "Unable to parse date: $date\n";
>        "+0000 $Y-$m-$d $H:$M:$S";
>  }

I was rather confused until I looked at the source currently in git, but it looks like you have the patch lines backward. Looking at the diff header now that's more clear to me. At any rate, it's clear why this date didn't parse, and why your patch fixes it.

I don't have any idea what sort of date format git should be expecting from svn, so the possibility exists that the current regex is actually correct and svn is buggily leaving off the subseconds. Especially given that this timestamp issue doesn't seem to have come up before, that feels like a very real possibility. All the same, even if it is svn's fault, we likely want to adjust to accommodate faulty svn installs, certainly in easy cases like this; but I'll defer to Eric in that regard.

I appreciate the time you took to address this issue, and go so far as to submit a patch, but you'll be much farther ahead if you use git to submit patches to git. Your patch is pretty small and easy to understand, but it's still lacking a commit message and a signoff from you, and the diff is actually backwards. Patches in this state often end up dropped on the floor on this list- there's too much work to be done to spend our time on stuff where people haven't used the list conventions. It'd be a shame for any further work you do improving git go to waste, especially when it's not hard to correct, so I'm trying to help out now by pointing you in the right direction. You can find git.git on the web at the following address, along with git URLs from which you can clone:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=git/git.git;a=summary

Within the repository, Documentation/SubmittingPatches is your best guide to sending stuff to the mailing list.

In anticipation of a proper commit message and the like, this patch is
Acked-by: Deskin Miller <deskinm@umich.edu>
Junio C Hamano· Feb 17, 2009, 18:38 UTC · re: Ward Wouts · lore

Re: git-svn error: Unable to parse date

Ward Wouts <ward@wouts.nl> writes:
> Unable to parse date: 2004-03-09T09:44:33.Z
>  at /usr/bin/git-svn line 3995

A very nice problem description, illustrating what the code should accept but doesn't.

Show 14 quoted lines
> The message goes away with this one character patch:
>
> $ diff -bru git-svn*
> --- git-svn     2009-02-17 10:23:24.000000000 +0100
> +++ git-svn.orig        2009-02-17 10:20:30.000000000 +0100
> @@ -2387,7 +2387,7 @@
>  sub parse_svn_date {
>         my $date = shift || return '+0000 1970-01-01 00:00:00';
>         my ($Y,$m,$d,$H,$M,$S) = ($date =~ /^(\d{4})\-(\d\d)\-(\d\d)T
> -                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d*Z$/x) or
> +                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d+Z$/x) or
>                                          croak "Unable to parse date: $date\n";
>         "+0000 $Y-$m-$d $H:$M:$S";
>  }
You had me scratch my head by giving a reverse patch.

I think neither regexp is quite correct, assuming that SVN timestamp is supposed to always have decimal point after seconds, with optional fractional part, followed by Z (presumably to mean Zulu).

-                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d+Z$/x) or
+                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d)\.\d*Z$/x) or
The decimal point should get quoted.
Ward Wouts· Feb 17, 2009, 19:35 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: git-svn error: Unable to parse date

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:38:32AM -0800, Junio C Hamano wrote:
Show 7 quoted lines
> Ward Wouts <ward@wouts.nl> writes:
> 
> > Unable to parse date: 2004-03-09T09:44:33.Z
> >  at /usr/bin/git-svn line 3995
> 
> A very nice problem description, illustrating what the code should accept
> but doesn't.
Thank you.
Show 16 quoted lines
> > The message goes away with this one character patch:
> >
> > $ diff -bru git-svn*
> > --- git-svn     2009-02-17 10:23:24.000000000 +0100
> > +++ git-svn.orig        2009-02-17 10:20:30.000000000 +0100
> > @@ -2387,7 +2387,7 @@
> >  sub parse_svn_date {
> >         my $date = shift || return '+0000 1970-01-01 00:00:00';
> >         my ($Y,$m,$d,$H,$M,$S) = ($date =~ /^(\d{4})\-(\d\d)\-(\d\d)T
> > -                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d*Z$/x) or
> > +                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d+Z$/x) or
> >                                          croak "Unable to parse date: $date\n";
> >         "+0000 $Y-$m-$d $H:$M:$S";
> >  }
> 
> You had me scratch my head by giving a reverse patch.

Yes, I'm sorry about that. Hopefully my other post about this subject, sent after the remarks Deskin made, is in the proper format.

Show 8 quoted lines
> I think neither regexp is quite correct, assuming that SVN timestamp is
> supposed to always have decimal point after seconds, with optional
> fractional part, followed by Z (presumably to mean Zulu).
> 
> -                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d+Z$/x) or
> +                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d)\.\d*Z$/x) or
> 
> The decimal point should get quoted.
I think you're right.
Ward
Eric Wong· Feb 17, 2009, 21:49 UTC · re: Ward Wouts · lore

Re: git-svn error: Unable to parse date

Ward Wouts <ward@wouts.nl> wrote:
Show 41 quoted lines
> On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:38:32AM -0800, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> > Ward Wouts <ward@wouts.nl> writes:
> > 
> > > Unable to parse date: 2004-03-09T09:44:33.Z
> > >  at /usr/bin/git-svn line 3995
> > 
> > A very nice problem description, illustrating what the code should accept
> > but doesn't.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> > > The message goes away with this one character patch:
> > >
> > > $ diff -bru git-svn*
> > > --- git-svn     2009-02-17 10:23:24.000000000 +0100
> > > +++ git-svn.orig        2009-02-17 10:20:30.000000000 +0100
> > > @@ -2387,7 +2387,7 @@
> > >  sub parse_svn_date {
> > >         my $date = shift || return '+0000 1970-01-01 00:00:00';
> > >         my ($Y,$m,$d,$H,$M,$S) = ($date =~ /^(\d{4})\-(\d\d)\-(\d\d)T
> > > -                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d*Z$/x) or
> > > +                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d+Z$/x) or
> > >                                          croak "Unable to parse date: $date\n";
> > >         "+0000 $Y-$m-$d $H:$M:$S";
> > >  }
> > 
> > You had me scratch my head by giving a reverse patch.
> 
> Yes, I'm sorry about that. Hopefully my other post about this subject,
> sent after the remarks Deskin made, is in the proper format.
> 
> > I think neither regexp is quite correct, assuming that SVN timestamp is
> > supposed to always have decimal point after seconds, with optional
> > fractional part, followed by Z (presumably to mean Zulu).
> > 
> > -                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d).\d+Z$/x) or
> > +                                           (\d\d)\:(\d\d)\:(\d\d)\.\d*Z$/x) or
> > 
> > The decimal point should get quoted.
> 
> I think you're right.
Yup.  Consider a patch with the quoted decimal point to be
  Acked-by: Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>
Thanks Junio, Deskin and Ward.
Ward: Just curious, which version of the SVN libraries are you running?

Odd that this hasn't come up before, I wonder if it's the latest versions (which I haven't tried, still on 1.5.1) or if SVN just truncates the zeroes...

-- 
Eric Wong
Junio C Hamano· Feb 19, 2009, 00:53 UTC · re: Eric Wong · lore

Re: git-svn error: Unable to parse date

Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net> writes:
> Yup.  Consider a patch with the quoted decimal point to be
>   Acked-by: Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>
Thanks

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